Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013)
2013
PG-13
119 Minutes
With the 70s behind him, San Diego's top rated newsman, Ron Burgundy, returns to take New York's first 24-hour news channel by storm.
User Review
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Anchorman 2 is anchored down by a series of unfunny rapid quick fire jokes that managed to put this sequel off air. 'The Legend Continues' is about as legendary as Fantana's condom collection, the "chickens of unnecessary sequels" if you will. Now, I know exactly what you're going to say. "It's a comedy, you hate them, why watch it?". Well, believe it or not, but its predecessor headlined a variety of satirical gags that ensued a minimal amount of hilarity, which for me is a huge compliment. So to see that a sequel was inevitably commissioned nearly a decade later, had me nearly go full Brick. Unfortunately, my enmity for McKay grows stronger, as I believe this broadcast to be one of the most unfunny, lazily written and forgettable comedies I've ever had the misfortune of watching. Ron Burgundy is fired from his co-anchor position and is recruited by GNN to officially launch the world's first 24-hour news network, which obviously means that him and his old news team are back together to take over the primetime slot.
The inherent issue with this comedy is the sheer amount of jokes. The one-liners that had no setup and clearly no payoff. If the film has a multitude of gags that arise every minute for the entirety of its two hour runtime, you'll either exhaustingly faint due to laughing too much (in which case I question your humour) or you'll grow increasingly enervated by its onslaught. Evidently, I fall into the latter.
The next criticism with McKay and Ferrell's "humour" is the sheer randomness of it. Botching a suicide after being fired from SeaWorld. Temporary blindness as Ron lives out his isolation in a lighthouse. Bottle feeding a shark, which ends on a cringeworthy musical number when it's released back into the sea. Ice skating. A brutal conflict with other news networks just to shove as many celebrity cameos in as possible (Cotillard why!?). Yet there's no setup, it just happens. So you're bombarded with all this stochasticity, numbed by the fact that it relates to absolutely nothing. To me, that's atrocious writing. And at a meaty two hours long, the central plot is unusually given no time to actually develop, becoming secondary to the humour. For instance, where was the development in the team winning the graveyard shift? One moment they're on, the next Jack Lime changes his name to Jack Lame.
The next criticism is with the type of jokes. The outdated "black" shenanigans which sees Burgundy channel his inner Austin Powers, was horrendously dull and uninspired. Not nearly as intelligent as it thought it was. The female dominance of Good's character was severely undermined, and held no substance.
Burgundy himself take centre stage, naturally, but his news team were severely under-utilised. Carell receives some credit for his scenes with Wiig, which worked for his character. Rudd had one or two lines? Koechner didn't even need to be in this sequel at all. And the supporting cast were mediocre at best. Drake? C'mon! I still yet to find Ferrell remotely funny, as this sequel has cemented that sentiment. Possibly the longest two hours of my life, and that was without the "Super-Sized" cut. Yeah, no thanks...0 member like this review.
